Microsoft Word is a beloved application used by typists all over the world. The program is packed with with all kinds of features, many of which you might never come across when you’re typing up a report, short story, essay, or whatever else you might be working on. To help you uncover some of the lesser-known tricks the software is capable of, we present a bunch of our current favorites. Here are 18 tricks that will turn you into a master of Microsoft Word.
1) Tell Word what you want to do

Recent versions of Word have a very helpful “Tell me what you want to do” field above the ribbon toolbar which you’ve probably been ignoring. It’s not just for beginners. Type a few words related to any command to quickly navigate through Word’s labyrinthine menus.
2) Find your previous location

For those particularly long documents, it’s often handy to be able to jump back to the cursor’s previous position, particularly after closing and reopening something. To switch to where the cursor was the last time you saved a document, use the Shift+F5 shortcut.
3) Generate filler text automatically

Here’s an oldie, but a goodie. Word can generate lorem ipsum (or filler) text for you automatically whenever you need it. Type “=lorem(p,l)” straight into your document. Replace “p” and “l” with the number of paragraphs and lines you need to generate.
4) Double-click to hide white space

If you’re viewing a document in the print layout (as if it’s actually on a page), then you can quickly hide the superfluous white space by hovering the mouse cursor over the gap between the page and toolbar, then double-clicking. Double-click again to bring it back.
5) Quickly insert hyperlinks

Once you’re inserting links this way, you’ll never go back to the more long-winded methods. Highlight the text you want to build a link on, hit Ctrl+K, and then paste in your URL and hit Enter. Easy. And the same trick also works in Google Docs, by the way.
6) Double-click to write anywhere

Messing around with tables and columns to get the perfect layout can be time-consuming, but Word is able to handle basic page layouts without any help from you. Just double-click in any position on the page where you want text, and start typing.
7) Search the web with Smart Lookups

Highlight a word or phrase, right-click and choose Smart Lookup. It’s your shortcut to researching something on the web without having to bother your web browser. It doesn’t work perfectly every time but it’s still helpful to have, and it provides word definitions too.
8) Change the default font

Veteran Word users will know you can change the font Word uses for new documents from the Font dialog box. In Word 2016, click the pop-out arrow in the lower left of the Font pane on the ribbon toolbar, set your values accordingly, then click Set As Default.
9) Make the ribbon your own

You know you don’t have to settle for the default ribbon layout that Microsoft gives you? Get the tools you use most often to the fore by choosing File, then Options, then Customize Ribbon. Edit the existing tabs or set up a brand new one for yourself.
10) Select arbitrary areas of text

Need a text selection that goes vertically rather than horizontally? Want to start a selection in the middle of a word? Just hold down Alt before you click and drag, and you’ll be able to select any rectangle of text you like, ready for formatting or deleting.
11) Hide spelling and grammar mistakes in one document

Newer versions of Word let you turn off those red and green lines for the current document only if you don’t want them cluttering up your pages. Open the File menu, then click Options and then Proofing. Tick the two Hide... options at the foot of the dialog box.
12) Add text to the spike

The spike is a temporary holding place for text cut from the document. Use Ctrl+F3 to add text to the spike, or Ctrl+Shift+F3 to paste it. On the Insert tab, open the Quick Parts menu (above the Text heading), then pick AutoText to view the spike’s current contents.
13) Make your own AutoCorrect rules

AutoCorrect can be by turns very useful and very frustrating, but you can set your own rules by opening File and Options, then the Proofing tab, then clicking AutoCorrect Options. You can set up your own auto-replace rules for text snippets if you like.
14) Get rid of unwanted formatting

The wrong formatting can really mess up a document, whether you’ve edited it yourself or pasted it in from somewhere else. Use Ctrl+Space or click the Clear All Formatting button (an eraser on an A on the Home tab) to remove formatting from highlighted text.
15) Save yourself some eye strain

Ploughing through long documents isn’t usually much fun (depending on the document), but you can save some of the strain on your eyes by switching to Read Mode (from the icon on the View ribbon) and then selecting View then Page Color and Sepia from the list.
16) Delete entire words at a time

This is quite an elementary one that you might not be aware of. You don’t have to peck away at the keyboard to delete text. Hold down Ctrl while pressing Backspace and you can erase entire words at a time, making it much easier to clear out your unwanted prose.
17) Replace all the images in a document

There’s a quick way to swap every image in a document. Get your replacement image on the clipboard from inside Word, then open Find & Replace (Ctrl+H): put “^g” (all graphics) as the find value and “^c” (the clipboard contents) as the replacement, then Replace All.
18) Use Word’s built-in calculator

Open the Quick Access Toolbar menu (top left) then pick More Commands and All Commands and add the Calculate option. Choose this from the Quick Access list whenever a sum (e.g. “=2+2") is highlighted and the result appears on the status bar.